Peking University

In this protocol, we describe two strategies that simultaneously suppress two genes (double gene knockdown) in honey bees. Then we present how to use the proboscis extension response (PER) assay to study the effect of double gene knockdown on honey bee gustatory perception.

Here, a procedure to selectively activate a neuronal protein with a short pulse of light by genetically encoding a photo-reactive unnatural amino acid into a target neuronal protein expressed in neurons in culture or in vivo is presented.

The goal of this protocol is to noninvasively assess cardiac structural and functional changes in a mouse model of heart disease created by transverse aortic constriction, using B- and M-mode echocardiography and color/pulse wave Doppler imaging.

Here we explain a protocol for modelling the biophysical microenvironment where crosslinking and increased stiffness of the basement membrane (BM) induced by advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) has pathological relevance.

A protocol for producing a large area of nanopatterned substrate from small nanopatterned molds for study of nanotopographical modulation of cell behavior is presented.

This protocol demonstrates murine islet isolation and seeding onto a decellularized scaffold. Scaffold-supported islets were transplanted into the epididymal fat pad of streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic mice. Islets survived at the transplantation site and reversed the hyperglycemic condition.

Infections caused by multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterial strains have emerged as a serious threat to public health, necessitating the development of alternative therapeutics. We present a protocol to evaluate the effectiveness of antimicrobial blue light (aBL) therapy for MDR Acinetobacter baumannii infections in mouse burns by using bioluminescence imaging.

This article presents a protocol optimized for the production of microfluidic chips and the setup of microfluidic experiments to measure the lifespan and cellular phenotypes of single yeast cells.

Three-dimensional (3D) reflection seismology is a powerful method for imaging subsurface volcanoes. By using industrial 3D seismological data from the Tarim Basin, we illustrate how to extract the sills and the conduits of subsurface volcanoes from seismic data cubes.

Internal lung surface area (ISA) is a critical criterion for assessing lung morphology and physiology in lung diseases and injury-induced alveolar regeneration. We describe here a standardized method that can minimize the measurement bias for ISA in both lung pneumonectomy and prosthesis implantation mouse models.

This newly developed fluorescence-based technology enables long-term monitoring of the transcription of circadian clock genes in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of freely moving mice in real-time and at a high temporal resolution.

An objective measure of muscle functions is challenging especially in children. Based on a commercially available digital 3-D sensor, a child-friendly gaming test was developed to assess upper limb function for clinical trials.

This paper presents a comprehensive procedure to evaluate in vitro whether classic tumor angiogenesis exists in hemangioblastomas (HBs) and its role in HBs. The results highlight the complexity of HB-neovascularization and suggest that this common form of angiogenesis is only a complementary mechanism in the HB-neovascularization.

Here, we present a protocol to investigate the structure and dynamics of interfacial water at the atomic scale, in terms of submolecular resolution imaging, molecular manipulation, and single-bond vibrational spectroscopy.

Here, we present a modified electrospinning method to fabricate PCL vascular grafts with thick fibers and large pores, and describe a protocol to evaluate the in vivo performance in a rat model of abdominal aorta replacement.

The experimental procedure on the immunophenotyping of murine orthotopic PDAC homografts aims at profiling the tumor immuno-microenvironment. Tumors are orthotopically implanted via surgery. Tumors of 200–600 mm³ in size were harvested and dissociated to prepare single-cell suspensions, followed by multi-immune marker FACS analysis using different fluorescently-labeled antibodies.

We describe a method for the isolation of endocrine cells from embryonic, neonatal and postnatal pancreases followed by single-cell RNA sequencing. This method allows analyses of pancreatic endocrine lineage development, cell heterogeneity and transcriptomic dynamics.

It remains a major challenge to develop conditional gene-knockout or effective gene-knockdown in adult zebrafish organs. Here we report a protocol for performing nanoparticle-mediated siRNA gene-silencing in adult zebrafish heart, thus providing a new loss-of-function method for studying adult organs in zebrafish and other model organisms.

Here, we present a protocol to grow LSMO nanoparticles and (Gd) BCO films on (001) SrTiO₃ (STO) single-crystal substrates by radio frequency (RF)-sputtering.

High-intensity femtosecond pulses of laser light can undergo cycles of Kerr self-focusing and plasma defocusing, propagating an intense sub-millimeter-diameter beam over long distances. We describe a technique for generating and using these filaments to perform remote imaging and sensing beyond the classical diffraction limits of linear optics.

A detailed protocol for applying the click chemistry-assisted RNA-interactome capture (CARIC) strategy to identify proteins binding to both coding and noncoding RNAs is presented.

We developed a technique that simultaneously records both electrocorticography and local field potentials in response to nociceptive laser stimuli from freely moving rats. This technique helps establish a direct relationship of electrocortical signals at the mesoscopic and macroscopic levels, which facilitates the investigation of nociceptive information processing in the brain.

Presented here is a protocol that combines an in vitro neural-endothelial co-culture system and metabolic incorporation of sialoglycan with bioorthogonal functional groups to expand primary neural stem and progenitor cells and label their surface sialoglycoproteins for imaging or mass-spectrometry analysis of cell surface markers.

Cell-based assay is a widely used method to detect serum anti-aquaporin-4 immunoglobulin G. This method could be applied to clinical diagnosis and scientific researches of neuromyelitis optical spectrum disorders.

Single-fiber recording is an effective electrophysiological technique that is applicable to the central and peripheral nervous systems. Along with the preparation of intact DRG with the attached sciatic nerve, the mechanism of conduction failure is examined. Both protocols improve the understanding of the peripheral nervous system's relationship with pain.

A gentle touch-force loading machine is built from human hair brushes, robotic arms and a controller. The hair brushes are driven by robotic arms installed on the machine and move periodically to apply touch-force on plants. The strength of machine-driven hair touches is comparable to that of manually applied touches.

A pan-lyssavirus nested reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction has been developed to detect specifically all known lyssaviruses. Validation using rabies brain samples of different animal species showed that this method has a sensitivity and specificity equivalent to the gold standard fluorescent antibody test and could be used for routine rabies diagnosis.

This protocol describes optimization procedures in a virus-based dual fluorescence-labeled tumor xenograft model using larval zebrafish as hosts. This heterogeneous xenograft model mimics the tissue composition of pancreatic cancer microenvironment in vivo and serves as a more precise tool for assessing drug responses in personalized zPDX (zebrafish patient-derived xenograft) models.

A bioinformatics pipeline, namely miRDeep-P2 (miRDP2 for short), with updated plant miRNA criteria and an overhauled algorithm, could accurately and efficiently analyze microRNA transcriptomes in plants, especially for species with complex and large genomes.

Described are protocols for the highly efficient genome editing of murine hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPC) by the CRISPR/Cas9 system to rapidly develop mouse model systems with hematopoietic system-specific gene modifications.

Here, we present a protocol to perform an invasive hemodynamic assessment of the right ventricle and pulmonary artery in mice using an open-chest surgery approach.

A protocol for graphene-assisted growth of high-quality AlN films on nano-patterned sapphire substrate is presented.

Here, we provided a method to achieve stable transfection of chicken Eimeria parasites by nucleofecting sporozoites or second-generation merozoites. Genetically modified eimerian parasites expressing heterologous antigenic genes could be used as vaccine delivery vehicles.

We describe three methods of bone marrow transplantation (BMT): BMT with total-body irradiation, BMT with shielded irradiation, and BMT method with no pre-conditioning (adoptive BMT) for the study of clonal hematopoiesis in mouse models.

Immunohistochemistry staining and 16S ribosomal RNA gene (16S rRNA gene) sequencing were performed in order to discover and distinguish bacteria in cancerous and noncancerous ovarian tissues in situ. The compositional and functional differences of the bacteria were predicted by using BugBase and Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States (PICRUSt).

This protocol describes how to perform electrical recordings from mammalian sperm cells in a whole-cell configuration, with the goal of directly recording ion channel activity. The method has been instrumental in describing the electrophysiological profiles of several sperm ion channels and helped to reveal their molecular identity and regulation.

This tutorial describes a simple method to construct a deep learning algorithm for performing 2-class sequence classification of metagenomic data.

Here, we describe the use of the single-molecule imaging method, DNA Curtains, to study the biophysical mechanism of EWS-FLI1 condensates assembling on DNA.

Here we present a modified method for the isolation and culture of human gingival epithelial cells by adding the Rock inhibitor, Y-27632, to the traditional method. This method is easier, less time-consuming, enhances stem cell properties, and produces larger numbers of high-potential epithelial cells both for the laboratory and for clinical applications.

Oxygen consumption rate (OCR) is a common proxy for mitochondrial function and can be used to study different disease models. We developed a new method using a Seahorse XF analyzer to directly measure the OCR in acute striatal slices from adult mice that is more physiologically relevant than other methods.

Augmented reality technology was applied to core decompression for osteonecrosis of the femoral head to realize real-time visualization of this surgical procedure. This method can effectively improve the safety and precision of core decompression.

Here, we present a protocol to preserve the vasal vessels in microsurgical vasoepididymostomy. The surgical security is enhanced by preserving the vasal vessels using a retrograde-anterograde dissociation and fixing the vasal vessels.

The present protocol describes the fabrication of poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid)-based highly open porous microspheres (HOPMs) via the single-emulsion formulation based facile microfluidic technology. These microspheres have potential applications in tissue engineering and drug screening.

The amygdala plays a key role in temporal lobe epilepsy, which originates in and propagates from this structure. This article provides a detailed description of the fabrication of deep brain electrodes with both recording and stimulating functions. It introduces a model of medial temporal lobe epilepsy originating from the amygdala.

In the present protocol, the endothelial barrier function of the submandibular gland (SMG) was evaluated by injecting different molecular weighted fluorescent tracers into the angular veins of test animal models in vivo under a two-photon laser-scanning microscope.

This protocol describes a calcium phosphate-induced abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) mouse model to study the pathological features and molecular mechanisms of AAAs.

The present protocol describes a mouse model of the ablation of adrenergic innervation by identifying and resecting the superior cervical ganglion.

In this paper, we present a novel automated method for assessing visual acuity in infants and toddlers by using an eye-tracking system.

This protocol describes a fabrication method for a flexible substrate for surface-enhanced Raman scattering. This method has been used in the successful detection of low concentrations of R6G and Thiram.

Available pluripotent stem cell (PSC)-to-functional cell differentiation systems are currently impeded by problems of severe line-to-line and batch-to-batch variability. Here, using cardiac differentiation as the main example, we present a protocol to intelligently monitor and modulate the process of PSC differentiation based on image-based machine learning.

The pericytes in retinal vasculature were examined by immunofluorescent staining with platelet-derived growth factor receptor β after retro-orbital injection of fluorescent tomato lectin. The labeled retina was further treated with the tissue-clearing method and whole mounted for visualizing the three-dimensional views of pericytes surrounding retinal vasculature under a confocal microscope.